At any rate, the year was 1987, and the Pep Band was in the middle of doing a field show in Scott, and at a certain point, the Pep Band just went and had a go at Buzz, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket mascot. George Weilacher, who was actually there, relates the incident:
Parker Meyers (of the Condom cheer) had discovered this big orange inflatable walrus that season and had decided to bring it on the field (in addition to his big yellow stuffed banana which he wore as a hat). Buzz thought that it would be fun to get in a tug of war with him over the walrus. This tug of war went on behind me while we were playing something in "standard concert formation" (that two semi-circle arangement thing). I turned around to look just as Buzz tugged real hard and tore the tusk off of the walrus causing it to deflate (the walrus, not Buzz). Buzz then started dragging the deflated walrus around like a prize, finally ending up in the middle of the semi-circular concert formation. "She" then decided to lay the walrus down on the turf and lay down on it (to taunt us, I guess). Well, needless to say, it was something like .00005 seconds between that and when Pep Band instruments were being discarded and bodies were hurtling forward yelling "FLESHPILE!!!" James Freilich was one of the first people to land on her and heard the frantic screams of "Get off me!" from the female Buzz. After a pile that reminded witnesses of History of the World Part 1 (" Knight jump Queen! Bishop jump Queen! Pawns jump Queen! ... GANG BANG!!"), we got off of her and she never really returned for the rest of the game.
So this, in case anyone was wondering, is why we don't do shows at Georgia Tech anymore.
In a classic example of how a bad reputation can follow you anywhere, the Pep Band was later blamed for breaking the Maryland Terrapin mascot's arm. It was, in fact, our Cavalier mascot who had injured the Terrapin in some spirited tussling, but there wa s some confusion in the press.